DEMOCRATIZATION A consultation on women’s rights and gender equality was held with the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights on 25 June in Kyiv, in line with a co-operation agreement between the Commissioner and ODIHR, focusing on strategies to promote women’s rights and gender equality within the NHRI and beyond. ODIHR contributed to the Conference on Gender Mainstreaming for the Serbian national human rights institution, the Office of the Protector of Citizens, organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia on 12 September in Belgrade, discussing strategies for integrating a gender perspective into the NHRI’s daily work on human rights protection. ODIHR also held a workshop on women’s rights, gender equality and human rights monitoring for the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia on 14 and 15 October in Ulaanbaatar, examining ways to further improve the handling of complaints, the documenting of and reporting on human rights violations, and the monitoring of the implementation of gender equality legislation. Combating Violence against Women Violence against women and girls, including domestic violence, remains one of the most widespread human rights violations in the OSCE region. While many participating States have adopted laws on domestic violence, their implementation remains weak because of persisting gender-based stereotypes and the tendency to view this violation as a private or family matter. Preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence requires not only the development of adequate legal frameworks but also policy measures to ensure their effective implementation. Accordingly, in 2013 ODIHR continued to support OSCE participating States in adopting and strengthening laws aimed at preventing gender-based violence, protecting victims and punishing perpetrators. ODIHR assisted national authorities in strengthening domestic violence legislation in Georgia and Ukraine, and in enhancing gender-equality legislation in Mongolia and Ukraine, in line with OSCE commitments. Strengthening Parliaments Representative parliaments, enabled to perform their duties effectively, are the key vehicle for the exercise of democratic governance. ODIHR’s work on parliamentary strengthening is anchored in OSCE commitments and is aimed at enhancing the capacity of parliaments to fulfill their legislative, representative and oversight functions in order to effectively contribute to sustainable democratic societies. Across the OSCE region, representative institutions are not fully representative of and accountable to the electorate particularly in light of the continuing under-representation of women in elected office and the unethical behaviour of some parliamentarians. In response to these challenges, ODIHR intensified its outreach on promoting parliamentary ethics initiatives by publishing the Background Study: Professional and Ethical Standards for Parliamentarians in 2013. The study is available in Arabic, English, Georgian and Russian. The study provides a comparative analysis of the practical measures OSCE participating States can take to promote ethical parliamentary behaviour. ODIHR presented the study to members of parliament and their parliamentary staff, civil society representatives and expert and academic communities in six OSCE countries — Austria, B ­ osnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Georgia, Poland and Ukraine. As part of its continued engagement in promoting cross-border dialogue on parliamentary ethical standards and norms, ODIHR organized a study tour to Warsaw for 25 parliamentarians and experts from OSCE participating States in South-Eastern Europe on 5 and 6 March. Following a request from the Parliament of Estonia, ODIHR participated in a seminar on parliamentary ethics and codes of conduct in May in Tallinn, which gathered 15 MPs to discuss measures necessary to introduce and enforce ethical standards for parliamentarians. Likewise, in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, ODIHR experts participated in a conference on codes of ethics and parliamentary accountability, held in Sarajevo in June. The conference gathered 20 experts, MPs and civil society representatives to exchange views on registering financial interests and striking a balance between private life and public accountability for parliamentarians. Following similar activities held in 2012, ODIHR and the Georgian Parliament, in co-operation with Transparency International Georgia, organized a conference on parliamentary ethics on 15 July, resulting 34  /   ODIHR Annual Report 2013